Reed boat sets off on ocean trip (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Mark Pivac
BBC News

A team of explorers has set sail from the US for Spain in a 12-metre-long (40ft) reed boat, hoping to spend about two months sailing across the Atlantic.

They are trying to prove that Stone Age people crossed the ocean thousands of years before Christopher Columbus in the 15th Century.

Aymara Indians in Bolivia, who still use reed boats, built the new vessel.

It takes its inspiration from prehistoric European cave paintings dating back more than 10,000 years.

Surrounded by the modern New York skyline, the dozen-strong team put to sea in the seemingly flimsy boat made of reeds.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6294786.stm

[Jed Dilligan]

1. I remember a Natl. Geographic article from a ways back

1980s, maybe--about some guys who crossed in a hide craft to prove the Irish (St. Brendan) could have done it.

I didn't know about the cocaine and nicotine in the Pharaoh's stomach. I wouldn't want to swallow either!

[eppur_se_muova]

2. I think this actually took place in the Bicentennial, 1976.

I missed it at the time, but there's a great book -- "The Brendan Voyage" by Tim Severin.

[Jed Dilligan]

3. Looking into this more,

I read up a little bit on Kon-Tiki... There's a really interesting body of evidence that the Incas visited Western Polynesia in the fifteenth century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Inca_Yupanqui


Kon-Tiki was balsa, not reeds, and eventually smashed up on a reef. It will be interesting to see how this Atlantic expedition fares.